


Catastrophe

by Ghost_Assist (orphan_account)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Cats, F/F, Humanstuck, Trolls As Humans, prompt, rosemary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-20 19:32:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1522922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Ghost_Assist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Two people accidently co-own a cat.</p><p>from <a href="http://meetcuteproject.tumblr.com/post/83640756987/meet-cute-writing-prompt">meetcuteproject</a> on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catastrophe

**Side A:**

Some damn thing was digging through her trash bags; shredded paper and other office waste cluttered the street. Whatever the beast was looking for, it obviously won’t find it here. Upon seeing the mess, Kanaya was furious.  _It must have been those hideous rats_ , she thought. She takes a hasty look at her watch, and decides to clean the whole thing before her mother sees it. Kanaya had enough time. It would be horrible for her mother to discover a rat living around their home.

Frustrated and annoyed, she goes back inside the house and takes a couple of trash bags and gloves.

“I’m going to kill this dumb rat,” she muttered to herself. She thinks some rat poison would do nicely, but there’s no way she could by it without her mom finding out. “Hopefully someone runs it over with a monster truck,” she says as she grates her teeth together.

Kanaya kneeled down low enough to grab a handful of the shredded waste. She does this hurriedly, grabbing handful after handful of gross, wet paper. In her fury, she ignored a sound behind her. In minutes, there was no trash left in sight, and Kanaya gleefully dumps the recollected trash into the container.

“Why do I feel satisfied, this wouldn’t have happened if something hadn’t knocked it over in the first place!” Kanaya complained. She takes off her right glove cautiously, and was reaching to pull off the left. Again, she heard a noise. It was almost inaudible, but Kanaya prides over her excellent hearing abilities.

Once more, another noise, just behind the stoop of the house. Kanaya quickly jogs from the front lawn to the steps, and glanced around the perimeter.

“What is that?” she asked herself.  _Meow._  She heard it clearly, and moves towards her and her mother’s garden. She moves the foliage aside, and behind it was a frail adult cat. Its black fur was shredding in most places, and in parts of the cat its skin was completely visible. It appeared as if it was unable to lift its poor head, and Kanya quickly rushes inside.

She was wearing high heels today, they were new, but Kanaya practically threw them across the room. She felt a bit slowed down with them on. Kanaya sprinted towards the kitchen and grabbed an old towel from the rack, and a can of sardines from the shelf. She’s glad that she had the sardines around for Nepeta’s frequent visits. (The girl preferred meat, but Kanaya’s mother was a vegetarian. They found a middle ground in the end.)

As quick as she came into the house, Kanaya was out. Without another thought she sat down on the nearby stoop, and wrapped the black feline in the ragged yellow towel.

“It’s going to be alright,” she said. The cat lifted its head instantly the moment Kanaya opened the can of sardines. She pushed the can closer to the cat’s mouth. It began to gobble the whole thing up, and finished it without anything left.

“Hmph, you’re lucky, I suppose. If I weren’t such a good listener, it would be a catastrophe for you,” the teenager mused. Kanaya extended her hand to pet the top of the cat’s head. Surprisingly, it didn’t launch its claws at her. Instead, it watched her with curious eyes. It obviously didn’t have enough strength to attack, so Kanaya takes the chance and evaluates the condition of the animal. It looks weak, but good enough to nurse back to health. But for the moment she shouldn’t leave this one alone. She wrapped the cat cozily into the towel, lifted it up, and walked inside.

There goes her plans to go to the book signing to meet her favorite author. Kanaya’s idol, the one who’ll never show up in New York again. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and there it goes. Kanaya signs, and the cat nuzzles its head closer to her chest. It’s so cute.

“You are such a catastrophe, I think I’ll just name you Catastrophe,” she said jokingly. Strangely, the cat reacts to the name by meowing. (It might be in Kanaya’s head, but that meow was timed awfully well.)

She smiled and thought,  _I’ve never had a pet before._

Later that day, Kanaya hears that the signing was cancelled, and might be held at another date. She looked at Catastrophe, the cat fast asleep in her nap, and smiled.

**Side B:**

Jaspers has gone missing for about 8 months now. Rose doesn’t have the energy to continue counting down the days anymore, but she can’t help it. She misses him dearly and wants him to come home.

—

He went missing the night John and Jade came over to visit. Of course, since John wasn’t used to summers in New York, he popped open a window to cool down. Rose thought it would be fine, since her room door was closed, and Jaspers was in the kitchen napping. The day was spent having a wonderful time talking to her online friends in real life. Around midday Dave finally came by, and the four of them decided to spend some time around the forest.

Mistakenly, Rose forgot all about the window. At first, John blamed himself for opening it in the first place, but Rose was quick to divert the blame upon herself.

The next few days were spent looking for the black cat in the forest, but it was to no avail.

Jaspers was missing for five days. On the sixth day, Rose painfully called off the search. Her friends came here to enjoy time spent together, not to find her missing cat.

Stubbornly, the group refused to quit, and persuaded Rose to continue until it was time for them to leave. The search ends bittersweet with Rose in absolute appreciation to her friends, but no Jaspers to be found.

In the first three months she’s been searching solo, or sometimes with her mother. It’s difficult because like John, Dave and Jade, Jaspers was one of her closest friends. Roes and her mother had a crew survey the Lalonde estate, they drove down city alleyways, and they’ve even went to the nearby suburbs. That cat was a complete disaster or just a plain catastrophic pet, but she really did love him. And Rose wasn’t planning on giving up.

—

“Rose do you remember the signing you cancelled because one of our guys thought he saw Jaspers around town?”

Rose perks up in interest and replies,” Yes, it’s the only one I’ve cancelled this year. I’ve been meaning to call the book store again,” Rose said as she opened up a planner. She walked over to her mother with the planner stretched out in front of her. A date is circled on the page. Rose continues,” and I think this Saturday would be fine.”

“You made arrangements already?” Rose’s mother asked impressed. “I thought I was the manager of my sweet, young child author.”

“Mother, no,” Rose made a face as she spoke. Ew, baby talk. She sighs. “I need to make it up to those fans anyway. I’m really sure that some of them were awfully upset that we didn’t show up at all.”

“Furious!” her mother yelled. “I would be too if I lost my chance to meet the best writer in the world,” she said with a wink.

Rose rolled her eyes. She was used to her mother’s behavior towards her work: full support and annoyingly flattering words of encouragement. “You’ve said that a million times, Mom.”

**Side A:**

“Catastrophe, guess what?” Kanaya smirks at the feline perched on the upper kitchen shelf. “Rose Lalonde is heading back to the bookstore today to a signing since she canceled the last one!”

The cat seemingly stares back in interest, and hops off onto the counter then to the floor. He then proceeds to brush up against Kanaya’s leg. He began to purr.

“Of course you’d be excited,” Kanaya said back. She wanted to phone a friend of hers over, but then she remembered that none of them were really a fan of fiction. Well all except Terezi, but that girl was blind and was not able to read. Kanaya recognizes the humor in inviting her to a book signing.

The rest of Kanaya’s contacts appear black. Most of her friends went to a session of some sort, and she can’t help but feel a tad bit betrayed. Surely one of them would have time to go with her for just thirty minutes to meet someone they’ve never probably heard of.

She sent out some texts to a few of her contacts. She suspected them to be at home, but after 10 minutes, it was evident that they don’t feel like being dragged around by a six foot woman.

She almost had forgotten about her pet, if it weren’t for him meowing as loudly as hu- catedly possible. Kanaya looked down in faux disgust and gasped,” Oh, you’re hungry.”

She sets down the cat food in no time, and Catastrophe begins chomping it all down. The young girl leaned down and began stroking behind her companion’s ears.

“You know, that author of mine really adores cats,” Kanaya pondered aloud. Kanaya began stroking its neck and back, and the animal appeared to not give a care in the world. “She wrote a little story about her little kitten on her first book. I usually don’t find most author’s summaries interesting,” Kanaya stopped stroking, and glanced on the black and white tiles of the kitchen floor. “But hers was.”

Catastrophe finished his meal, and began returning the affection given to him. “Oh you want to see her?” Kanaya asked him. “Well…” Kanaya stopped speaking and a brilliant thought occurs to her. Of course, she didn’t need to bring a bored out friend to the signing. “I’ll bring you,” Kanaya explained to the black cat.

**Side B:**

He was just there, Rose is sure of it! After two hours of sitting down, and writing her name about a thousand times, Rose took a break behind the store. Her mother had stayed outside to distribute a couple of goodies to the fans, (it was a sort of compensation for canceling the old meeting). Rose was positive that she saw Jaspers. He was walking just fine, and hoped down from one of the nearby trees in the street.

In hurry, Rose ran after his shadow only to find nothing. Her face began to feel hot, and Rose could feel a dampness running down her face. Her breath comes up short, and her fist clench in utter frustration. Hot tears begin streaking down her face in fury, and Rose breaks out a slight sob.

She thought she saw him. After eight months, she thought she finally had her Jaspers again.

Her hands reach out to cover her face. It’s awfully embarrassing, what if a fan saw her right now, breaking down in the middle of the street? Seconds before her fingers come into contact with her face, a soft grasp holds her back. She feels the shadow of the person looming over her, and it frightened her a bit.

In annoyance, Rose looked up and said, “Hey, I’m not in the mood to be touched.”

**Side A:**

Her face was in complete shock. Kanaya didn’t know what to do. Her favorite author in the whole world was sobbing her eyes off in the middle of the street, and all Kanaya could think to do was to take her hand, and shove Catastrophe into her face. It worked out for Nepeta when she was hyped up, so it was a bit of a automatic reaction.

Kanaya huffed in relief as the features on Rose’s face begins to soften. Catastrophe has taken a liking to her, and was excitedly playing with the one of Rose’s outstretched hands. (The other still with Kanaya.)

“Catastrophe, “ Kanaya spoke.

Rose gave Kanaya a look, and replied with a soft voice,” He looks like a Jaspers.” The young writer then marveled at the condition of the feline. Kanaya stared back with curiosity and allowed her to take the cat into her arms.

“I’m a big fan,” Kanaya said timidly. “And I knew you loved cats, so I wanted to take mine with me to see you.” Kanaya explained.

Rose laughed, her face still wet, and her right hand was still in Kanaya’s. “Do you want to hear a story, um?”

“Kanaya,” the fan replied.

Rose smiled, “Well Kanaya, here’s a tale for you.”

**Side B:**

Rose had nothing to worry about. The ones you truly love will always return, one way or another and sometimes, they bring a little bit more love back.

 

 


End file.
